Somerset College

Karl Green, a former Carpentry and Joinery student at Somerset College, won this year’s regional heat of the Site Carpentry section of the SkillBuild Competiton held at Somerset College.  He then went on to compete in the finals in South Lanarkshire College, Glasgow in October where he came fourth out of more than 15 competitors.

SkillBuild is the UK National competition for the Construction Industry and is the largest multi-trade competition in the country for young students and apprentices.  It covers nine areas of construction crafts. 

Somerset College has been hosting the South West Regional heats for the past nine years and is set to hold the 2010 heat once again.

The regional heats take place in the spring and summer and involve students working on test plans which take a day to complete.  The highest scoring winners from the regional events are put forward to compete in the national final which is held in the Autumn. 

The national final test plans take 2.5 days to complete and end with an awards evening.

The test pieces are designed to challenge the ability of entrants to follow detailed instructions, produce accurate and neat work outputs, be economical with materials while working to strict timescales – all essential requirements for today’s construction industry.

Karl said: ‘I was so pleased to get to the National Final and finish 4^th overall. I was really proud to represent my former college and my employer, Stacey Construction based in Wivelscombe.  This achievement was particularly special to me as my work colleague who also went to Somerset College, has been successful at the Skill Build National finals on two previous occasions. I am delighted to have my name added to the construction department’s “Hall of fame.”

Barbara Bennett, Head of the Division of Construction said: ‘ We have a good track record in this competition as  one of our previous students, Ben Ingersent represented Great Britain in the WorldSkills Finals in Japan in 2007.  We are really proud of Karl’s success and our long relationship with the SkillBuild competition and really looking forward to hosting the regional heats once again in 2010.’